Sue Jones looks back at the training undertaken by the Society's
continuing professional development facilitators and their work with
the branches
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A key message from the Society’s members arising out of the 2001
consultative review, “Shaping up for the future”, was that
there was an important role for the branches in supporting pharmacists’ continuing
professional development.
As a result, the Society recruited a team of 22 branch CPD facilitators
to help members understand the Society’s CPD requirements and support
the introduction of mandatory CPD. Following their appointment all the
facilitators were given intensive training to help prepare them for their
new role.
A toolkit containing a presentation and activities in a ready-to-go format
was developed in consultation with the Society by Sue Cook, an expert
trainer who has worked with the Society on its CPD requirements since
the pilot study in 1999. The idea behind the toolkit was to ensure some
consistency throughout the branches and also to help facilitators tailor
the meetings to meet the differing CPD needs of the individual branches.
Each
facilitator was allocated a minimum of four branches and was asked to
contact branch secretaries and offer their input into two evening
meetings.
Since July 2004, over 120 meetings have taken place at branches across
England, Scotland and Wales. The toolkit proved an invaluable resource
for facilitators. It has ensured that the content of the meetings has
remained consistent while the style and delivery of the meetings were
left in the hands of the individual facilitator. “Branches have
found CPD facilitated meetings to have been excellent and valuable addition
to their branch programmes,” Paula Wilkinson, from Chelmsford branch,
says.
“Members have enjoyed sharing their experiences of CPD and the
meetings have looked to encourage discussion and group participation
with a diverse
group of attendees,” says Mike Salter, of Medway branch.
“Attendance at these facilitated meetings has often been the highest
seen for a few years — sometimes with standing room only,” according
to Shilpa Gohil, secretary of Harrow and Hillingdon branch.
Feedback from branches showed that members have enjoyed the CPD evenings,
which they saw as being interesting, informative and reassuring. Members
also welcomed the opportunity to share their individual experiences of
CPD with others. Members have been particularly interested to find out
how CPD technology works and how records can be kept.
The CPD meetings have proved to be a real success with the numbers attending
being considerably higher than for other branch meetings. In the light
of the positive feedback the project has been extended from 12 to 18
months to enable more members to participate.
To find out where your nearest CPD branch meeting
is contact Nicola Kelly in the Society’s membership team (tel 020
7572 2330). |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal